Sarah Rollens

Sarah E. Rollens is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College. Prior to coming to Rhodes, she taught courses in Religious Studies at University of Toronto, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and University of Alabama. She received her PhD in the Study of Religion in 2013 from University of Toronto. Her dissertation, Framing Social Criticism in the Jesus Movement: The Ideological Project in the Sayings Gospel Q, was published in 2014 by Mohr Siebeck. Her current research project deals with violent imagery in early Christian texts. This research combines her broader interests in Christian origins, social theory, scribalism, identity formation, the ancient Mediterranean world, and the Synoptic gospels. Prof. Rollens has taught numerous courses in Religious Studies: Introduction to the New Testament; Introduction to Religious Studies; Historical Jesus; Jesus of Nazareth; Violence in Early Christianity; Religion and Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean World; Popular Culture/Public Humanities; Jesus in the Early Christian Writings; Early Christians Gospels; and Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. She is currently teaching The Bible: Texts and Contexts (Life) and The Search for Values in Light of Western History and Religion (Search).

“The Rewards of Redescription: An Assessment of Burton Mack’s Influence on the Study of Christian Origins.” Pp. 69–74 in Theory and Method in the Study of Religion: Twenty Five Years On. Edited by Aaron Hughes. Supplements to Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 1. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

“The Identity of Q in the First Century: Reproducing a Theological Narrative.” Pp. 177-91 in Failure and Nerve in the Study of Religion. Edited by William Arnal, Willi Braun, and Russell McCutcheon. London: Equinox, 2012.

Respondent, "Book Review Session on Sarah Rollens' Framing Social Criticism in the Jesus Movement and Giovanni Bazzana's Kingdom of Bureaucracy: The Political Theology of Village Scribes in the Sayings Gospel Q," Q Session, Society of Biblical Literature, San Antonio, TX, November 20 2016.